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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

I like Richard Sherman’s salty attitude, my brotha.
Because he backs it up with his play, my brotha.
He is a top 3 cornerback already, my brotha.
Maybe all-pro by the end of the year, my brotha.
We need that passion to bark at opponents, my brotha.
So they know we won’t back down, my brotha.
I hope his my brotha thing catches on, my brotha.

“Great positive step in the right direction for Wilson. But let’s please temper our rampant uncontrolled enthusiasm. He was largely bad between the 1st and 4th quarter. Dan Fouts was doing a pretty spectacular job in the broadcast booth telling it like it is; Wilson just didn’t look comfortable in clean pockets, made things difficult for the OL (I love how the media is trying to spin Breno saving Wilson from getting demolished as “a penalty that negated a huge run”), and was largely ineffective outside of a couple of broken plays on the run.

That said, I was impressed at his unrattled demeanor for the entire game and will give credit where it’s due for his strong deep bombs.”

“Tebow should start over Sanchez, but neither should be NFL quarterbacks.”

Well, yeah, which is why I’m saying there is a whole lot more to being an NFL quarterback than struggling for most of the game but pulling it together in the 4th quarter. Generally, good QBs (prime Matt Hasselbeck, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, etc) put games away early. Pulling a “cardiac cats” routine week after week just means the QB wasn’t good enough for the first 50 or so minutes of the game, unless it’s an offensive shootout, but that clearly isn’t the case with our elite defense.

ACIB–I hate that Carrol is keeping a tight lid on the offense for much of the game. I think Wilson plays better with the training wheels off/leash off than he does when he’s tied down to a conservative gameplan with limited opportunities to make a mistake/great play.

Kind of like expecting Big Mike Williams to catch 3 of 3 passes thrown his way all game…he wont. But throw him 6-12 and he’ll drop one or two tough ones, and catch 3-10 of them.

I also think it sucks to mount one attacking drive, get a TD, then go all conservative for the next 2+ quarters. But thats Carrol and Bevells decision, and IMO not Wilsons fault. Of course, with Wilson getting better each week, perhaps they will trust him more and open up the offense in EACH QUARTER, which IMO is what it will take to get sufficient leads to put a team away early.

Wilson isnt playing at an elite level consistently, but he sure did some amazing things Sunday, and you cant argue with his results, nor can you say another qb could have done better than those three TD passes. Wilson may not be a great qb yet, but he deserves better than Bevell and Carrols straightjacket gameplanning. He’s improving and is justifying thier faith in him, and his play IMO demands a more attacking gameplan.

The conditions were awful, and you could see that the ball slipped coming out of his hands a few times, which led to incompletions.Not that Wilson didnt make mistakes/bad throws; he did, but he didnt throw any picks and he definitely helped beat NE, rather than just not being a reason we lost.

And comparing Tebow to Wilson is lame. Tebow doesnt have the talent Wilsons little finger does. Seriously, Tebow sucks and has no business playing qb in the NFL. John Fox would have won more than one playoff game if he’d had Wilson as his qb. Dude’s a pretty good coach–or at least did well managing Tebow’s weaknesses.

Also, on replays I saw Wilson getting the ball out pretty quickly due to some seriously poor pass pro from our line. NE was very active along the line, and our line just isnt playing at a very high level.

I’ll say this (and then some people will probably lie about what I meant)… and that’s that Wilson needs the training wheels on in the intermediate game, but I love the fact that they are letting him air it out deep. Due to his height, he’s never going to be a good 3 step drop and throw a quick slant type of guy, but that doesn’t mean he can’t/won’t be good. I am falling in love with the idea of pounding it, going with short (high percentage) passes, and then bombing it deep. Then, of course, when the middle opens up, you go there (but only when it opens up). I feel like a Monkee in that I’m becoming a believer in this type of system for our offense to be successful!

Slave, the game planning has improved on a weekly basis. Why do you assume they will go back to the stone ages for the 49ers game? Don’t you think that the 49ers have been exposed twice now, and we haven’t? If Brady/Bilicheat couldn’t solve us to a win, why do you think the 9ers will? Do you think they will out-physical us and force us to be one dimensional? RW has shown nothing but quality growth every game. WR’s, and TE have all improved. Line play (overall) has improved.

I think personally we will give the 49ers a nice fat home loss, and we will take sole possession of 1st place.

sluggo–I agree, the gameplanning has improved each week, though I wished they would open it up more in Carolina. And with the Niners having a defense every bit as good as ours, I expect our coaches to dial back thier offense.

As for us not being exposed twice, we HAVE been exposed–in every game, even the wins. If you stop Lynch, we can hardly move the ball. We cant come back from a two-score defecit MOST of the time, and we struggle to move the ball consistently through the air. Yes, we beat GB, but we nearly gave that one away. We nearly did the same thing in Carolina, and we BARELY beat the Pats. Oh, and we lost to the Cards and Rams because we couldnt do the three things consistently well that are still a problem for us: 1) throw downfield with accuracy 2) convert third downs and 3) Score TD’s in the Red Zone.

I love that we beat NE, and its great. But just like the ST’s plays in the Dallas game, that stuff isnt something youre gonna get every week. What we need to do is be able to throw the football when needed, to convert third downs and to score TD’s more than half the time in the red zone. Until we do those things on a consistent basis, we arent a fully functioning elite team.

NE lost because they have crappy DB’s and Brady got arrogant, and because of the horrid weather. They also underestimated Wilsons deep ball, obviously. The Niners have a far better defense, and we havent shown we can 1) keep them under 20 points and 2) score 20 points against them.

I think our defense can keep them to 13-17 points, but Im not as confident our offense can top that. We’re gonna need some serious special teams play.

I want to beat the Niners so bad it hurts, but this is gonna be one tough game.

One thing I was really excited about was the lack of penalties. It seemed at the time that the Pats got all the calls/non-calls thier way, but Seattle had only 4 penalties, which is great! I believe NE had 8! Considering at least one penalty was bogus thats really amazing.

pdway- I don’t want to trade Flynn, however he does deserve a shot at starting somewhere.
I know he is making good money sitting, but how long will he accept this role knowing that he could make an impact for some other team?

I expect us to play well enough to beat the whiners this Thursday. And why not? We lost both games to them last year because we had a special teams melt down in the first game, and we had a qb that was one of the worst in the last two minutes of the game in NFL history.

About trading Flynn – yes, it’s great to have a very good back-up QB, but there is a reason why most teams don’t carry two NFL-quality starting QBs on their roster: they aren’t very common, and the opportunity cost is too high.

That is, of course, assuming that other team’s in the league consider Flynn as a starting-quality talent. If they do, they will offer Seattle at some point draft pick(s) that reflect that value. Would you pay (or not take) a first or second round pick for Flynn? Because that’s what starting-quality QBs go for.

It’s hard to say, though, if anyone else values him that way. When he was on the market, not a lot of interest. Hopefully for Seattle that changes some time prior to next year’s draft, and they get the opportunity to gather more draft capital.

It’s not that I want Seattle to trade Flynn, and in fact, I wouldn’t take anything less than a second round pick. If someone offers something less, I keep him as a back-up, because in my opinion, a quality back-up QB is worth a 3rd round pick (which is why I wasn’t bothered by the Whitehurst trade – basically an upgrade over Wallace with unknown upside).

And as far as the game this week, I think it’s gonna be tough, playing the niners on their turf. Maybe not – maybe the Seahawks are considerably better and it shows, but I wouldn’t put a lot of money on that.

Flynn should not be traded. For heaven’s sake, there is absolutely no guarantee that Wilson will become a franchise QB. In fact, history would suggest against it.

“Also, on replays I saw Wilson getting the ball out pretty quickly due to some seriously poor pass pro from our line. NE was very active along the line, and our line just isnt playing at a very high level.”

That isn’t true at all, I just rewatched the game on DVR. Brady dealt with far more pressure than Wilson did all game, the difference is that he steps up EVERY time and quickly gets the pass off. Wilson simply cannot make those passes because he is too short. Also, he makes it more difficult for the OL due to his deep dropbacks.

Yeah, Manning (2-3) and Brees (1-4) are sure putting teams away real early. Their OWN teams that is. It’s clear you just develop one of your negative paradigms and then distort or ignore any data that doesn’t conform to your story. Not sure why you think anyone will be swayed by that. Most people here are realistic about RW, with a few exceptions. You’re the one that needs to reign in his irrational negativity about RW. If he’s not a top 5 QB from day one then he must be a no talent midget. Judge him within realistic parameters.

P.S. You didn’t say a peep all summer it seems like, really since Curry has been gone, and now you’re suddenly back with another player to obsess over. Is that your one trick? I can’t see how being a Hawks fan is enjoyable for you. It’s just sad.

Has anybody watched the Whiners game against the Giants and can provide some insight into what happened? I have confidence that the Hawks run defense is as good or even better than what the Giants have but the pass rush is not as good. The Seahawks linebackers are a tad better and the secondary is a lot better. That said, I do not get how the Giants held them to three points. If the Hawks can hold them to ten points, I would like to think that they can win on Thursday. Anyway, the whiners will be angry and our Hawks confident but hopefully coached to not be overconfident (see Brady, Tom). A win at San Francisco followed by ten days rest, a tricky but winnable game against the Lions, followed by the Bye and the second half of the season with five home games (including all three divisional foes) and away games at Miami, Buffalo and Chicago. This sets up nicely and the Hawks are in full control of their own destiny. Beat the Whiners and Go Hawks!!!!!!

Oh, and the INTs were largely due to Giants getting good pressure on Alex Smith, and as per his usual, that leads to picks. He gets very flustered if he doesn’t have time to pass. Once they got behind, they stopped running the ball, which was a mistake, probably.

“Brady dealt with far more pressure than Wilson did all game, the difference is that he steps up EVERY time and quickly gets the pass off”
I rewatched the game too REALLY!!!
Brady got very little pressure most of the game and when he did the pressure was pushed outside and behind him keeping the POCKET intact for him as well as no defenders in front of him a lot easier throws to make. The other side of the ball pressure came from everywhere a lot more often not consistently from one spot or another(don’t lie to make your point about your hate for the QB), short, tall medium height doesnt matter when theres no consistent pocket to go to.

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